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| Thread ID: 52452 | 2004-12-19 10:24:00 | is my hard drive dead? | ineedhelp (6616) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 305630 | 2004-12-19 10:24:00 | Hi there all, well let me explain and I hope someone can help me, because obviously, i need help. for a variety of reasons (virus is the most likely culprit) I've had to reformat my parent's hard drive. So after I booted the computer using the Win-created Win98SE boot disk and checking that I had CD-ROM support, i ran fdisk and deleted the current partitian, I then created a new partitian which was assigned all the available space on the HD. After rebooting, at the A: prompt i ran the "format C:" command, and everything started fine, but when it got to 40% completed it stopped and the error message "format terminated" showed. I tried fdisk-ing again (as above) and tried to format again but the same result happened, I've tried 4 times and each time it has stopped at 40% done. Does this mean that the hard drive is stuffed/screwed/buggered/dead? Is there anything else I can do which may mean I can use the HD or at least part of it? smaller partitians perhaps? This is what else I've already tried: Downloading a new bootdisk (OEM version from bootdisk.com) and used that, same result., downloading the Western Digital diagnostics tool for DOS and using that to try and figure out whats wrong with the drive, I get the error message "invalid media type reading drive C". If I check the current partition status in Fdisk this is the info it shows: Partition= C: 1, Status=A, Type=PRI DOS, Vol label=[blank], 7177 Mbytes, System=UNKNOWN, Usage=100%. What else can I do? the computer will only boot using the bootdisk. I guess the saving grace is that I backed up the data onto my sister's laptop & burnt a CD of it before the format :) Anyone out there who can help that would be great. Here's some more info on the system setup: Dell Optiplex GX100, 566Mhz, 64MB RAM, Win98SE (was!), the hard drive specs are: Western Digital 7.5GB EIDE 5400rpm, model #= WD75AA. Thanks in advance, Daniel. I guess at the worse I'll need to buy my parent's a new hard drive for Christmas! |
ineedhelp (6616) | ||
| 305631 | 2004-12-19 10:27:00 | PM or email me (growly at gmail dot com). | Growly (6) | ||
| 305632 | 2004-12-19 10:34:00 | Start saving :( I would love to be able to point you in the direction of some magical utility that could fix your drive and enable you to format it, but I can't. My experience is that when drives start giving you errors like this when you are formatting them, they contain bad sectors and are on their last legs. By backing up your existing data you have done everything you can do. Give yourself a pat on the back, you have saved yourself from imminent data loss. |
b1naryb0y (3) | ||
| 305633 | 2004-12-19 10:44:00 | Try Knoppix or some other live Linux distro CD like Mepis or Insert Rescue, with QtParted, boot it and check out the partition and disk from that. There is no possiblity the HDD has a hidden partition on it. I came across one on a friends PC with a hidden NTFS partition, he was using win98, had him stumped and me for a while. Good luck, smart move to back up. |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 305634 | 2004-12-19 10:54:00 | its very unlikey to have a hidden partition on it, it's never been 'fiddled' with until now. how would i find a hidden partition anyway? aren't they hidden?!? yeah i knew backing up the important stuff was a good idea :D | ineedhelp (6616) | ||
| 305635 | 2004-12-19 11:16:00 | My friend had bought his, supposedly, brand new as a replacement . He had the shop install it . He had win95 not 98 when I think on it more but used a modified win98 boot disk if I remember rightly (was about 3 or 4 years ago) . The size was pretty much the same as the drive it replaced, so they might have just put the partition on to size it, why though??, was nowhere near the limit 95 can see . Anyway, it would be worth the effort if you can find a free tool like QtParted, otherwise drives are fairly cheap per MB these days . |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 305636 | 2004-12-19 13:45:00 | give ultimatebootcd a look, pop it in, set the system to boot from cd and then follow your nose In the right hands it's a very powerful and very handy cd to have, in the wrong hands it's hilariously dangerous :badpc: |
whetu (237) | ||
| 305637 | 2004-12-19 22:31:00 | Have you tried running scandisk from the boot floppy. Although if the drive is not formated completely it may not be able to help much. | Davesdad (923) | ||
| 305638 | 2004-12-20 00:26:00 | Last night Growly ( :thumbs: ) sent me a disk utility thing called Spinrite 6.0, which i ran and it checked through the drive, everything reported as fine except for one bit which just happened to be at 40.06% of the way through the drive (funny that). the tool "recovered the data" from this damaged sector. I'm not sure if this now means that I can try and format the drive again and hope for the best, but honestly im not convinced that the drive is going to be able to be reliable in the future. I guess I should just try anyway, there's no other way to find out. I wasn't too keen on formating last night, when it was already 2am by the time the check had finished doing its thing, so i went to bed instead. I havn't tried scandisk yet, I think i'll try to format again next, unless there's some definate thing that I should do before I do that. any wise words to pass onto me? |
ineedhelp (6616) | ||
| 305639 | 2004-12-20 00:30:00 | >any wise words to pass onto me? Even if you manage to get the HD working,Never ever trust it again. |
Metla (12) | ||
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